(Facebook.com)
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Did You Know - AE86 Edition
Here's Why 86 Is Toyota's Favorite Number
The number 86 reminds enthusiasts of the time when Toyota Corollas were rear-wheel drive, and fun to drive.
The Corolla name doesn't just refer to some of the most mundane commuter cars on the planet—it was also applied to Toyota's most iconic performance models built between 1983 and 1987. They were called AE86s, a name that breaks down in Toyota-speak as follows: 4A engines (A), a Corolla badge (E), fifth-generation bodies (8) and represented the sixth variant of this family (6).
(Road&Track.com)
The number 86 reminds enthusiasts of the time when Toyota Corollas were rear-wheel drive, and fun to drive.
The Corolla name doesn't just refer to some of the most mundane commuter cars on the planet—it was also applied to Toyota's most iconic performance models built between 1983 and 1987. They were called AE86s, a name that breaks down in Toyota-speak as follows: 4A engines (A), a Corolla badge (E), fifth-generation bodies (8) and represented the sixth variant of this family (6).
(Road&Track.com)
Talk About An Oddly Functional Thing
The Ford Mustang GT350 Has Holes In The Exhaust For The Most Bizarre Reason
The holes in the GT350's exhaust tips are because of the tires, as Ford’s Chief Performance engineer Jamal Hameedi explained to Jay Leno on an episode of his garage show. “The tires are so sticky that they take little pebbles, and they spit them up in the back of the fascia.”
This happens when, after a session out on the track, the Mustang’s
hot tires become sticky like a piece of flypaper and begin to pick up
all the little pebbles and gravel on the road. The tires naturally fling
them towards the rear fascia and those exhausts tips that are not
totally connected to the actual exhaust. Without those drain holes, the
rocks and pebbles would rattle around in there.
(Jalopnik.com)
The holes in the GT350's exhaust tips are because of the tires, as Ford’s Chief Performance engineer Jamal Hameedi explained to Jay Leno on an episode of his garage show. “The tires are so sticky that they take little pebbles, and they spit them up in the back of the fascia.”
(Jalopnik.com)
We Have Idea & Apparently They Don't Either
Does Nissan Even Care About Motorsports In North America Anymore?
Globally, Nissan’s motorsport efforts are still going strong, with GT Academy, Super GT, and numerous GT3 and customer programs alive and well. If there’s a big motorsport event abroad with iffy international broadcast coverage, Nissan’s often the one to put together an English-language stream for it. Yet North America seems to be a no-man’s land when it comes to major factory Nissan racing support.
And thus, we’re left confused. With the loss of Always Evolving’s
factory support, we’re not sure what Nissan’s focus is anymore. In the
past two years, Nissan’s star factory racing program here went from
being its global Le Mans prototype in 2015 to a production-based GT-R
in 2016. Now Nissan’s two biggest North American programs will be a
customer GT-R team and the IMSA prototype of Tequila Patrón ESM, which Sportscar365 believes to be a mostly self-funded effort by the team with little financial backing from Nissan themselves.
With Nissan’s focus changing year-to-year and an apparent lack of willingness to spend much of their own money on anything motorsport-related, it can be hard to tell if anything they’re doing works.
Worse, Nissan North America’s slow and awkward withdrawal from being a major player in North American motorsports speaks to a dread every racing fan has: racing must make itself relevant to the masses to survive. We may be convinced that a car is cool because we see it on track, but more of us are in the market for a ran-when-parked 1987 BMW E30 than a new Altima.
As for the people here in America who might actually buy a new
Altima, I don’t know if any of them will ever care about any motorsports
program at all. That’s the challenge, and with driver aids and
autonomous technology making “fun to drive” less of a selling point,
it’s only going to get harder from here.
It’s far too easy for manufacturers like Nissan—whose bottom line is more connected to Rogue sales than race results—to walk away, which they tend to do quietly and abruptly, if recent history still rings true. Racing is expensive, and relies on sponsorship and manufacturer involvement to keep going. The question now is if anyone at Nissan even cares enough about racing to continue to support it here.
(Jalopnik.com)
Globally, Nissan’s motorsport efforts are still going strong, with GT Academy, Super GT, and numerous GT3 and customer programs alive and well. If there’s a big motorsport event abroad with iffy international broadcast coverage, Nissan’s often the one to put together an English-language stream for it. Yet North America seems to be a no-man’s land when it comes to major factory Nissan racing support.
With Nissan’s focus changing year-to-year and an apparent lack of willingness to spend much of their own money on anything motorsport-related, it can be hard to tell if anything they’re doing works.
Worse, Nissan North America’s slow and awkward withdrawal from being a major player in North American motorsports speaks to a dread every racing fan has: racing must make itself relevant to the masses to survive. We may be convinced that a car is cool because we see it on track, but more of us are in the market for a ran-when-parked 1987 BMW E30 than a new Altima.
It’s far too easy for manufacturers like Nissan—whose bottom line is more connected to Rogue sales than race results—to walk away, which they tend to do quietly and abruptly, if recent history still rings true. Racing is expensive, and relies on sponsorship and manufacturer involvement to keep going. The question now is if anyone at Nissan even cares enough about racing to continue to support it here.
(Jalopnik.com)
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